Friday, October 28, 2011

Puducherry Municipal Services Pvt Ltd (PMSPL), India's first truly Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Project and the joint venture company between Kivar Environ and Puducherry Urban Development Agency engaged in solid waste management in the Municipalities of Puducherry and Oulgaret and the Commune Panchayats of Villianur and Ariankuppam had embarked on one of Puducherry's massive cleaning operations ever, with major deployment of men and machine to clear of waste generated due to celebration of Diwali and the incessant rains.

Collectively more than 1800 Tons of waste was collected during the festive season, making it one of the largest cleaning drives ever to have taken place in the Urban Agglomeration of Puducherry.

Commending the work force on this phenomenal feat, Lt. Col. (Retd). C. P. Prem Vas, COO, PMSPL, said "This endeavor underlines our commitment to effect a comprehensive change in the way Puducherry is presented to the visitors to the city and the residents of the city. This massive deployment of men and machinery enabled clearing of the waste generated due to the celebrations of Diwali and the rains. If not for the dedicated efforts and unsparing approach towards garbage by our ground staff, I don't think this would have been possible."

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Students of middle school adopt two medians on Ariyankuppam junction, plant saplings: Photo by C.Venkatachalapathy

GREEN SURROUNDINGS: Students of Government Middle School, Ariyankuppam, carrying out maintenance work at the median , under the guidance of their teachers.

PUDUCHERRY: Traffic snarls, constant flow of heavy vehicles and the resulting air pollution might not be new for Ariyankuppam. But a group of young students of Government Middle School, Ariyankuppam, are making a difference: they have begun a project to reduce pollution from vehicles and the impact of global warming in their own small way.

Driven by concern for environment, the students have adopted two medians on the busy junction of Ariyankuppam.

They have planted over 22 saplings along the medians and water them every day.

It was in March that the students embarked on this initiative soon after surveying the level of smoke emitted by vehicles crossing the junction.

"We conducted a survey to see the level of emission by two-wheelers, four-wheelers including heavy vehicles crossing the Ariyankuppam junction. We found that tractors, lorries and buses emitted heavy smoke, resulting in pollution in the locality," said R. Mugilan, a student of Class VIII.

Under guidance of their teachers, the students adopted two medians for planting saplings and erecting fences.

"The saplings have grown to some extent. Now, we can feel clean and fresh air in the locality. The plants take in carbondioxide from the smoke emitted by vehicles and release oxygen," Mugilan said.

A team of 15 students from Class VI to Class VIII have been maintaining the saplings every day after school hours.

"We water the plants every day and add manure to the soil. We feel that this is one of the ways to reduce the effects of climate change and create a green surrounding," said K. Thamizhvelan of Class VII.

Even the summer vacations have not dissuaded their efforts.

The students come to the spot every evening at 4.30 p.m. to do the work on rotational basis. The plants include hibiscus, palm tree, table rose and cassia fistula, they added.

But this was not all. As E. Jayabalaji of Class VII said, "We took out a rally to spread awareness among the public not to burn plastic and to plant a sapling in every house. We staged a street play on how to reduce the impact of global warming."

The initiative was part of the National Environmental Awareness Campaign (NEAC) which was being conducted in the school for the last four to five years. Last year, the theme was biodiversity and this year, it was climate change, said trained graduate teacher and NEAC coordinator of the school D. Ramalingam.

Funded by the CPR Environment Education Centre, which was the regional resource agency for NEAC, the project has enabled students to understand and be aware of environment conservation, said the school's headmaster, P.K. Bhaskaran.

Pondicherry Govt. proposed to construct a Over Bridge to connect Ariankuppam-Pondicherry as detailed below:

Puducherry, April.17: An Information Technology park would be set up at Pillaichavady on a 41-acre land, Puducherry Education and Information Technology Minister M O H F Shahjahan informed the assembly today.

During question hour, the minister told R Viswanathan (CPI) that there was also a proposal to set up a park in Lawspet.

With M Kandasamy (Congress) A M H Nazim (DMK) insisting that the government set up such parks in Bahoor and Karaikal respectively, the Minister said there were certain parameters and norms which should be adhered to.

Intervening, Chief Minister N Rangasamy said the government was considering proposals to broadly create such parks.

Rangasamy told R K R Anandaraman (PMK) that a technical survey would be conducted to construct over bridges to link Ariankuppam on Puducherry-Cuddalore route to the town and also between Reddiarpalayam and the town limits.

The Larsen and Toubro company had already presented a project report.The government would constitute a technical committee to go into the various features of the overbridge projects. (Agencies)

Puducherry, October 6, 2011:Puducherry Municipal Services Pvt. Ltd (PMSPL), a Joint Venture between Puducherry Urban Development Agency (PUDA) and Bangalore based Kivar Environ Private Limited, today said that in continuation to their ongoing efforts to keep Puducherry Clean they were further revamping operations to effect visible changes to the Municipalities of Puducherry and Oulgaret and the Commune Panchayats of Villianur and Ariankuppam falling under the Urban Agglomeration of Puducherry. As part of its streamlining efforts, PMSPL has appointed Lt. Col (Retd) CP Prem Vas as the Chief Operating Officer of PMSPL.

Mr. Prem Vas has over 21 years of varied experience in Operations and Project Management and was associated with major corporate houses in his stint.He also served Indian Army in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was responsible for managing Military World Games (MWG) 2007 as Chief Coordinator of Artillery Centre and served in Special Action group of National Security Guards (NSG) where he handled specialist security environment including special operations.PMSPL launched its operations in the month of January this year in the Commune Panchayats of Ariankuppam and Villianur and expanded their operations covering all areas under the commune Panchayats and the Municipalities of Puducherry and Oulgaret by July this year. This is India's first truly Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Project and is based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and is structured on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer / Maintenance (BOOT/M) basis.

The scope of services of PMSPL in the first phase includes:City Sanitation comprising of street sweeping, cleaning of drainsPrimary and Secondary collection of waste including door to door collectionSecondary transportation of the waste to processing facilityIn the second phase it will be undertaking EIA & Preliminary investigations at the processing and disposal facility siteDesign, Engineering, Construction, Operation & Maintenance of waste processing facility with multiple technologies Design, Engineering, Construction, Operation & Maintenance of scientifically engineered sanitary landfill facilityPost closure monitoring of landfillThe operations undertaken by PMSPL involve door-to-door awareness drive on segregation of waste at source, primary and secondary collection of garbage and secondary transportation of waste. PMSPL has deployed 14 Compactor pick-up trucks, 79 tippers, 300 plus tricycles and 300 plus pushcarts for primary and secondary collection and transportation of solid waste.

The vehicles have been specially designed for hassle free collection and transportation of different types of solid waste. PMSPL have also deployed more than 1000 secondary storage bins for collection of solid waste across the length and breadth of the Urban Agglomeration of Puducherry. PMSPL has undertaken an aggressive door-to-door campaign informing people about segregation of waste at source and the health benefits attached to it. PMSPL has also introduced India's first toll-free helpline facility 1800 103 8552 for the benefit of the citizens of Puducherry.

This toll free helpline is made available 24x7. The call center is being manned by a 3-tier efficient team to register the calls and effect immediate action on the calls received. Published by HT Syndication with permission from Web Newswire. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com